Once there, she found an airline drink coupon on the ground and got in the TSA PreCheck line. Surveillance footage showed Sade passing through the checkpoint with no issues. Once she was through security, she made her way to a Southwest Airlines gate, where an observant employee noticed she looked lost.

Sade handed the employee the drink coupon, which was issued to a passenger who had boarded an earlier flight. The employee called the police, and the responding officer immediately identified Sade from the missing person report.

Sade told the officer that she wanted to board a plane and fly to Asia.

"She said she wanted to go to Asia to see the Chinese blossoms or something," her father, Gerald Subbs, said.

The TSA told WRBW that Sade presented a valid boarding pass with somebody else's information, and because she was under 18, she did not need to provide identification to pass through the security checkpoint.

"The individual presented a valid and current boarding pass. Under the age of 18, passengers are not required to present an ID. She was screened and therefore presented no threat to the aviation system," the TSA told the news station. "This is an example of where many layers of security worked. Although she presented someone else's boarding pass, she was screened, and the TSA screening procedures did assure that she posed no threat to aviation."

It is unclear how Sade got another passenger's boarding pass, or what she did with it after she passed through security.

She was reunited with her father, who was thankful his daughter was safe.

"She could have gotten on an airplane. It could have been a lot worse," Subbs said.